Honours Student Success

Melissa Northcott…hitting the ground running…

Despite having no previous experience in a lab and starting in February this year, Melissa Northcott’s project, which describes previously unrecognised associations of Lupus clinical features with two novel biomarkers, resulted in two abstracts being submitted to the American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting in Philadelphia this year, where she will present her work.

Ms Northcott’s abstracts have been awarded 'Notable Poster' award status putting them in the top 15% of over 3000 submissions. Ms Northcott is studying a Bachelor of Biomedical Science under the supervision of Professor Eric Morand and has performed all the genetic, clinical and statistical analysis and blood sample assays for the outcomes of her project. The collaboration between Monash University and Southern Health Lupus Clinic shows the potential power of translational research collaborations and the great success students are able to achieve through these opportunities.

Poh-Yi Gan...breaking new ground...

Ms Poh-Yi Gan won the ANZSN Basic Science Young Investigator Award 2009 for her research on the role of a new T helper cell subset, Th17, in autoimmune myeloperoxidase-ANCA glomerulonephritis. Autoimmune kidney disease caused by inflammation of the small blood vessels called vasculitis is still poorly understood. Ms Gan's work provides the first functional evidence of a role for Th17 immune cells in contributing to this disease in several different ways. Ms Gan is a PhD student who graduated with B Biomed Sci (Hons).